It is fairly easy to access the data policy that Instagram has. On their page, they clearly state what kinds of information they collect and what they use it for. Instagram collects information on the following: information and content you provide on their application or website, networks and connections, your personal usage of the app, information about transactions made on their products, things others do and information they provide about you, and device information. This information is used for the purpose of providing personalized products and as a way to improve their products, location related services, product research and development, and face recognition, if you have yours turned on.
Instagram uses cookies on their websites. Cookies can be defined as data stored by the browser while on a given website. They store varying information about the user and their habits while on the site. Instagram claims that they use cookies for the users, stating, “We may use these technologies to deliver the service, provide you with a service that is easy to use, enables you to move around the Service and use its features, such as accessing secure areas, and store information so that Instagram responds faster. We may use these technologies to collect information about how you use the Service, for example which pages you go to most often and if you get error messages from certain pages. We may use these technologies to allow us to remember choices you make (such as your user name, language or the region you're in) and tailor the Service to provide enhanced features and content for you. These cookies can also be used to remember changes you've made to text size, font and other parts of pages that you can customize. Instagram or our advertising partners may use these technologies to deliver advertising that is relevant to your interests” . Framing this form of data collection as something only beneficial for the user can be somewhat misleading. As this information is also given to advertisers to make the ads more personable.
What other users can see on your account can easily be controlled by the user. Once an Instagram account is made a user can choose to put their account in private mode, meaning that users who are not followers of the account cannot view that users page information. Additionally, a user may chose to delete or archive content at any time.
Additionally, Instagrarm uses first and third party cookies. First party cookies are cookies deployed by Instagram itself, while third party cookies are cookies deployed by Instagram’s business partners. It is important to note that these cookies are on users devices for an undisclosed amount of time.
Accessing your personal information on instagram is fairly straightforward. There are two easy ways to access your information. One way is through the application itself. The application allows you to easily toggle between screens that clearly indicate what information you are looking for. Another way to access information is by downloading the information directly onto your laptop. Here is how to complete that process.
1.Tap your profile picture in the bottom right to go to your profile.
2.Tap the 3 horizontal lines on the top right, then tap Settings.
3.Tap Security, then tap Download Data.
4.Enter the email address where you'd like to receive a link to your data and tap Request Download.
5.Enter your Instagram account password and tap Next, then tap Done.
6.You'll soon receive an email titled Your Instagram Data with a link to your data. Tap Download Data and follow the instructions to finish downloading your information
Deleting an account on Instagram is an easy process to start but takes a long period of time to officially complete. One's the deletion process is initiated by the user, Instagram waits 30 days to delete the account from user access. Additionally, it takes Instagram another 90 days to wipe your account from backup storage. On their website, these additional days are done so that “we [Instagram] use to recover in the event of a disaster, software error, or other data loss event. Also Instagram states that they may keep your information for legal issues, term violations or harm prevention efforts. From start to finish this is a 120 day process.
1. User must be logged on through Instagram web, not through the application
2. Navigate to this page: https://instagram.com/accounts/remove/request/permanent/
3. Pick a reason as to why you are deleting your account
4. Enter your password
5. Click permanently delete account
It should be noted that once on the web application, it is easy to temporarily deactivate your account, which is different from permanently deleting. It seems as though this is what instagram is pushing rather than allowing users to easily delete their account.
Here are some tips and tricks to make your Instagram account more secure
1. Put your account in private mode.
By putting your account in private mode, only you and people that you follow will have access to the content that you post on your page.
2. Choose weather you want tagged photos to appear on your account page.
By managing this options in your settings you have further control over what content is displayed for others on your page.
3. Report and Block pages
If an account is harrasing you or your friends online, report and block these pages. Reporting will alert Instagram of the account and blocking the account will diminish communication that the account has with your profile.
4.Only follow people you know
Sometimes random accounts might try and follow your page, be weary of these accounts as sometimes they are an attempt by others to get sensitive information from users.
5. Remeber that the content you post is now in the hands of Instagram for an undisclosed time.
With this in mind, if your are not comfortable with Instagram having access to this information, do not post it to their website.